Outrage Over Picture Showing Young People Looking At Their Phones While Elderly Woman Stands

The picture was shared on Facebook and has unsurprisingly received a lot of attention, with 1,400 comments and 25,000 shares, since it was posted last week.

The quartet of passengers have been slammed for failing to give up their seats.

One person wrote: “Shitty parenting results in shitty children. They probably don’t know any better thanks to their parents trying to be their best friends and not preparing them to be adults.”

Another added: “This photo shits me !!!! No respect what so ever gone are the days where the younger generation look after for their elders !!!! How other people haven’t ripped them from their seats and or made sure granny had a seat is beyond frustrating.”

A third said they definitely would have offered up their seat for the woman. They wrote: “Hey I’m not a young person but I would have stood up and given my seat up for the elderly lady and I’m dam sure my children would have done the same and they aren’t teenagers either…..dam rude, no dam respect,no empathy…too self absorbed.”

Not everyone was as quick to condemn the seated passengers however, with some claiming the picture might not tell the whole story.

One user wrote: “Not defending them but… someone may have offered, but the elderly said ‘No It’s ok I’m getting off soon or at next stop’.”

But rather than picking on anyone in the photograph, other people turned their aim at the person behind the camera, for trying to cause trouble.

“Typical person today. Take a photo and complain on Facebook but don’t have the balls to say something in real life,” wrote one person.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Sydney Trains said: “Sydney Trains encourages all of its passengers to observe appropriate transport etiquette including respecting elderly, disabled or pregnant customers by offering up their seats.”